Sometime around 7:45 am the key enters the lock and another day begins at Clever Ogre. Chris Dadant, coffee in hand, steps into the cave. Over the next 15 minutes, his coworkers, who all require lots and lots of caffeine to be productive members of society, will arrive. His early morning energy is both envied and hated.
The groggy ogres, and the one peppy one, settle into their desk chairs. Coffee is consumed by all as music plays. After the overnight emails have been checked and coffee from home has been consumed, a bit of 1-2-3 not it! determines who will make the first pot of ogre coffee.
Someone asks “What’s on the agenda this week?” – clearly it’s time for a meeting. The group gathers around a table in the great room. A close look reveals pens and paper, a sure sign the ogres are ready to take notes…or at least doodle. After all of the upcoming projects have been discussed, each team member returns to his/her desk. The sound of mouse clicks and keystrokes mixes with the music. Work is happening here.
Dadant is stroking his beard as he’s scouring the internet looking for bits of design inspiration. The reason for this is two-fold; he wants to see what kind of design elements are being used by others to suit a particular client or market, he also needs to be sure Clever Ogre doesn’t produce anything that could be confused for anyone else’s work. “We don’t use stock clip art.” he says as he modifies layers, removes strokes, and ogres up an image.
In the same room, Dan is typing away…and singing. It doesn’t matter if he’s writing website copy, a commercial script, a blog, some pithy social media post, or a storyline for a web video, his stoic demeanor is an odd counterpart to the frequent outbursts of overreaction, laughter, and singing. Inspiration comes from everywhere, except other people’s writing. Not reading is a great way to avoid plagiarism.
Over in the corner, Shawn sips on a Java Monster as he stares at code. Sometimes it’s hard to make websites do cool stuff without using Flash, but he finds a way. “Why no Flash?” you ask…a lot of portable devices don’t display Flash content. More than 90% of tablet based web browsing in the U.S. is done on Apple’s iPad, which doesn’t support Flash. The voodoo magic he’s creating over there looks like a bunch of punctuation to the average Internet user. Fortunately, we never have to see that stuff; just the cool things he can do with JavaScript.
Out in the great room, Nora is plucking away at her computer, scheduling meetings and keeping all of the ogre children on track. She spends almost as much time out of the office as she does at her desk. She’s a member of this group, that chamber, and just about any network where humans are welcome. The lady ogre is responsible for being the main point of contact for clients, both current and potential.
Telecommuting is Davis. Everything gets run by him before going out. He’s an emailing and phone calling ogre, for sure. Whatever the other ogres are doing, he’s having a peek and providing his opinion and expertise.
Two or three pots of coffee (and 20 or 30 potty breaks) later, someone blurts out “I’m hungry”, gets up, and makes lunch. One by one, stomachs get the better of bodies and food is consumed by all…at a desk, in front of a computer.
It’s not long before Dan decides it’s time for another pot of coffee. “Anyone want some? Cool. Who’s making it? 1-2-3 Not it!” Sounds of “Not it!” come from the remainder of the team. “Nora, you’re it.”
Soon, afternoon fatigue begins to settle in. Dadant leans back from his monitor, eyes red, and proclaims “This isn’t working!” Writer’s block doesn’t only strike writers. Really, it should just be called creative’s block. Like zombies, the other ogres look up from their work. Dazed, they decide to break the tension with a little teambuilding.
Putting contest!
Stress free and clear headed, the ogres get back to work. The last hour of the workday breezes by. Around 4:00, computers are set to “sleep” and the see you tomorrows begin as each ogre packs up lunch containers and coffee cups.
The same key that began the day turns the same lock to end it.
“See you tomorrow, Clever Ogre.”
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